Bio/Contact

David Graves has written a variety of musical works since the 1970s, including jazz, pop, electronic and “neoclassical” pieces for film, theater, studio, concert hall, and outdoor installations. He studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, City College of San Francisco and the University of Nebraska. David was a resident with the Lucid Art Foundation in 2019, the Berkeley Symphony for the 2008-2009 seasons and the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in 2003 and 2005. His large-scale ambient works have been installed in a redwood canyon (tree/sigh), The LAB (deciduous), Soundwave’s renowned AudioBus (Human Street Textures), and urban garden spaces (Fog & Expectations).

David has also released albums with AmbientBlack, the prog-rock groups ScienceNV and The Aesthetic Condition, and recorded several albums of pop vocal tunes. He has been a sound designer for productions at the Aurora and Shotgun Theaters in Berkeley as well as the California Academy of Sciences.

He served on the Board of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra for several seasons and had multiple pieces performed by that ensemble as well as the Irregular Resolutions composer collective. He assisted with four seasons of San Francisco’s biennial Soundwave Festival (including technical support, curation and grant writing); during that time, he performed innovative multimedia pieces as a part of the festival. He has received multiple grants from the American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer.